Monday, June 14, 2010

Bonnaroo Update: Part 1

I survived Bonnaroo Music Festival! 90-plus degree temps, very few trees for shade, tent camping, nasty camp showers, and nothing but port-a-potties for 4 days (okay, so we did sneak out a few times to use the public bathrooms at a nearby Wal-Mart ... you know you're roughin' it when Wal-Mart bathrooms seem fancy!).

The crappy conditions were all worth it though. My friend/co-worker Shara, her boyfriend Tyler, and my boyfriend Paul took in lots of awesome bands though we didn't quite make it to everything we wanted to see.

The music fest is held in the tiny town of Manchester, Tennessee, but it draws about 80,000 people. Showers cost $7 for the general population, but we were staying in the special V.I.P. guest camping area so ours were free (thank god!). Lots of folks chose to forgo showers and rinse off under this mushroom, which spews out soapy water (for some reason, it wasn't turned on yet in this picture):

Huge bobbleheads of the festival's founders were located throughout Centeroo, the music and vending area:

When we arrived on Thursday, Shara and I headed over to the media tent for a free press dinner. They had veggie burgers! And we each got two free cups of Sweetwater 4:20:

Later that night, we took in an awesome electronica show with Afrojack and Dieselboy, and we rode this ferris wheel:

On Friday, we saw my favorite comedian Margaret Cho in the comedy tent:

We missed Conan O'Brian's show because it had a limited number of seats, and we didn't make it to the line in time for tickets. But I did get a glimpse of Conan introducing the Tenacious D show:

I caught a few minutes of Tenacious D (love Jack Black!). They opened with "Pick of Destiny":

And then I hopped over to the Tori Amos show. Tori Amos is my all-time favorite musician. I've loved, loved, loved her for years. I own all of her albums and quite a few bootlegs. I even own the first album she recorded with Y Kant Tori Read! Her performance was absolutely magical!

Though I mostly ate sandwiches and canned goods at my campsite, I ended up springing for an overpriced veggie burrito on Friday night:

This thing was $10! Festival food is always ridiculously over-priced. It was okay. Just rice, black beans, tomatoes, jalapenos, and corn. It could have used some salsa or guac, but they didn't have that.

wow - what a an adventure. I'm not sure I could handle all that crowd and chaos... but then, Margaret Cho and Tori Amos and Conan and Jack Black - that's awesome!! I read in the paper that Stevie Wonder performed there, and thought of you. I'm a Stevie fan, through and through. We even named our dog after him. !!

my best friend is obsessed with Bonnaroo and has been trying to get me to go with her for years. I love music, but I'd probably spend all my time under that little mushroom trying to stay cool. did you see any good hula hoopers?

I almost fell over when I saw the picture of Tori Amos. I haven't been able to see her in concert for a few years now and it's really sad to me. (I have her Y Kant Tori Read album, too.) But I guess that's what CDs and MP3s are for!

My name is Bianca ...

About Me

I'm a 9-year vegan, 19-year vegetarian from the Mid-South, not too far from the muddy banks of the Mississippi River. And that means cornbread, butter beans, and collard greens.
These days, I live in Memphis. Check out my cookbook — Cookin' Crunk. It's filled with yummilicious veganized soul food and country classics.